Night Rune (Prof Croft Book 8) Read online

  Night Rune

  Prof Croft 8

  Brad Magnarella

  Copyright © 2020 by Brad Magnarella

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Table of Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Chapter 41

  Chapter 42

  Chapter 43

  Chapter 44

  Chapter 45

  Chapter 46

  Chapter 47

  Chapter 48

  Chapter 49

  Chapter 50

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  1

  Arnaud Thorne was sitting on the metal bench at the back of his cell, legs folded, slender fingers interlaced around his knee. The drab robe he wore over his prison scrubs was police issue, but he managed to make it appear regal. It was his bearing, erect yet relaxed. As his yellow eyes found mine through the window, his lips turned up at the corners.

  “Mr. Croft,” he said with false cheer. “To what do I owe this pleasure?”

  The magic that warded his confinement warped the air between us, bending his grin into odd shapes. The effect was nauseating, but no more so than the reason I’d come to him. And knowing he’d been expecting me.

  “Where are they?” I asked.

  He leaned forward, fine eyebrows rising up his waxy brow. “And to whom are you referring?”

  “My teammates,” I said. “The ones I entered the time catch with.”

  “You’re going to have to be more specific.”

  Struggling to keep a neutral expression, I exhaled slowly through my nose. His powers couldn’t penetrate the cell’s defenses, but he was a master manipulator, something he could manage through words alone. It was why I had given the guards strict instructions to keep the speaker off at all times. In fact, I’d ordered the guards out before turning it on. Arnaud and I had the holding area to ourselves.

  “There were four,” I said. “A young minister, a druid, a half-fae, and a mermaid.”

  “Indeed?”

  “Yes.”

  More than ten hours had passed since my return, and the Upholders were still no-shows. For a time, I held to the hope they’d delayed their return from 1776 New York to allow everyone to heal. Malachi, along with several of the half-fae, had suffered injuries from cannon fire, and some of the recovered druids, including Jordan’s wife, had been weakened by possession. But hours here would have been days there.

  By first light this morning, I had to accept something had gone awry.

  “Ah, yes.” Arnaud sat back and tucked a strand of fine white hair behind an ear. “You were quite a motley outfit. Fascinating to observe. And surprisingly capable.” He tsked. “A pity.”

  “What’s a pity?”

  “Well, that you journeyed all that way to rescue their friends, and you returned empty handed.”

  He opened out his own hands, his smile revealing his sharp teeth. He was baiting me to fire back with something to the effect that we’d destroyed a pair of Strangers, or that I’d managed to capture him. He wanted to stoke my emotions into a smoky blaze that would cloud my reasoning. But past experience with Arnaud had prepared me.

  “Where are they?” I repeated.

  He stood and straightened his robe so that it fell into neat pleats around his baggy pants. Clasping his fingers behind his back, he began a slow stroll around his cell in a pair of canvas shoes.

  As I awaited his response, I examined him for symptoms of being cut off from the infernal realm. He did appear thinner. And under the harsh fluorescent lights, his skin seemed to be yellowing. But if he felt any depleting effects, he hid them well. He pursed his narrow lips in a thoughtful expression, as if he had all the time in the world.

  At last, he spun on a heel. “What are you prepared to offer?”

  I grunted a laugh. “You’re not getting out.”

  “Then why should I assist you?”

  “Because this cell is the only thing protecting you from your master.”

  “What are you suggesting, Mr. Croft?”

  “I switch off certain sigils, and Malphas will see you’ve been taken prisoner. He’ll send up infernal power in an attempt to overwhelm the forces holding you, but when that fails, he’ll reclaim you before you can spill more than you already have. Yeah, you’ve said nothing, but he won’t know that.” I made a diving motion with my finger. “Back to the Below. And with no way to return to our world, you’ll be useless. Not only that, you’ll have failed him. I don’t think I need to spell out the rest.”

  Arnaud chuckled.

  “Laugh all you want,” I said, fighting to keep my throat relaxed. “You know it’s true.”

  “Oh, rest assured, Mr. Croft, I find no humor in the scenario. I imagine that’s exactly how events would unfold.”

  “Then what’s so funny?”

  “For all your bold talk, you won’t carry out your threat.”

  “No?” I challenged.

  “No. And it’s because of your lady friend and the little miracle she’s carrying.”

  My cheeks prickled with cold heat. “They have nothing to do with this.” I said it too quickly, but I couldn’t help it. I didn’t want Vega or our unborn child on the demon-vampire’s tongue, much less his mind.

  “Did I strike a nerve?”

  Arnaud was suddenly inches from me, his demonic eyes peering hard into mine through the window. The cell’s currents made his narrow pupils appear as if they fell into deep, twisting voids. I shuffled back a half step.

  “Ooh, I believe I did,” he said, delighting in my reaction. “Let me elaborate, Mr. Croft. If you released me to my master, yes, I would likely be destroyed. But what if I weren’t?” He grinned up at me. “After all, I’ve defied death before. And what if I found my way back to this world? This city? To your child’s … crib?”

  While he spoke, I recited a silent centering mantra to keep his words from taking lurid form in my thoughts. I wasn’t en
tirely successful. Flashes of the bloody mess he’d left at the vampire hunters’ apartment kept intruding. But I held his gaze, refusing to shrink from his insinuations this time.

  “So you see,” he said, “even though the odds favor you mightily, sending me to Malphas isn’t foolproof, which makes it a non-option. I doubt you even told your lady friend you were considering it.”

  “She’s not here,” I said. “Is she.”

  Instead of responding, Arnaud’s eyes gleamed devilishly.

  “Good, so let me rehash,” I said. “Refuse to help me, and you’ll meet your master. Give me something useful—”

  “And you’ll simply incinerate me?”

  “That’s right.”

  He drummed his first two talons against his chin as though pondering the question, but it was an act. I could practically hear the cogs whirring in his scheming mind. Even faced with death, he was working out something.

  “Why come to me and not the fae?” he asked after a moment.

  The question caught me off guard. My morning’s first stop had been the fae townhouse on the Upper East Side. I wanted the butler Osgood to tell me why he hadn’t delivered the rest of the Upholders from the time catch—and if needed, to send me back there. But no one answered the door.

  “The fae?” I repeated.

  “Surely you trust them more than you do me.”

  Something in the angle of his voice bothered me. “What do they have to do with anything?”

  “Oh, come, Professor. A man of your academic standing shouldn’t have to be led to the obvious.”

  Was he saying the fae were the reason the others never returned? I shook my head. No, this was just more of the demon-vampire’s deceit.

  “I can understand your reluctance to consider the question,” he continued. “After all, you had history with your contact inside the fae.”

  He was referring to my relationship with Caroline, something he would have known from possessing me the year before. But he was wrong. She wouldn’t have double-crossed me. Could someone have overruled her, though?

  Dammit, Arnaud was getting inside my head again, rattling me.

  “Perhaps you should have followed your own advice and been more skeptical toward them,” he pressed.

  My fists clenched below his view. “I’ll repeat my offer—”

  Arnaud waved a tired hand. “Yes, yes, I’m well aware of my fate. Cast down to the master or sent up in smoke. But here’s the real kicker.” He turned toward me with a triumphant air. “You can’t do either.”

  I laughed, but it came out all wrong. Did he suspect I needed him for something more?

  Before entering the time catch, I’d had a sequence of vivid dreams. In the first, I was with Vega and Tony in my apartment, holding our baby girl. In the next, I was at the blood-soaked scene of the vampire hunters’ massacre. A half-dead Blade rasped that Arnaud had acquired a bond-negating scepter—which turned out to be true. Blade then transformed into one of the senior members of my Order, Arianna, who said she and the others were trapped in the Harkless Rift. She told me to find Arnaud.

  Done, but now what?

  Arianna hadn’t returned, either in material or ethereal form, and I damned sure couldn’t ask Arnaud what she’d meant. He would use the knowledge that I needed him to maximum advantage. I had no choice but to wait on Arianna’s next communique, which meant keeping Arnaud alive until that happened.

  “And why not?” I challenged.

  “Because I’m the only one who can place you in the time catch.”

  I relaxed slightly—he didn’t know about my other need. “Yeah, sure you are.”

  “And yes, that’s where your friends are.”

  I eyed him for any hint of trickery. “Why didn’t they return?”

  “You’ll have to ask the fae.”

  “They’re not talking to me.”

  “Hm. That alone should tell you something.”

  “What do you know?”

  Arnaud returned to the bench at the back of his cell. “You asked me where your friends were, Mr. Croft, and I’ve answered the question. So go ahead, fire up your magic. Incinerate me as agreed.”

  He refolded his legs, clasping the topmost knee.

  The powerful wards I’d constructed brimmed with lethal energies. At a Word, I could release them into him, reducing the demon-vampire to smoke. A part of me burned to do just that—to rid the world of his evil, avenge the lives he’d savaged and destroyed, and protect my family. I caught myself shaping the Word in my mind. But even as the sigils began to glow, Arnaud held my gaze steadily.

  “Well?” he goaded.

  Swearing silently, I dispersed the gathering energy. The sigils faded.

  Arnaud smiled and clapped his hands. “A stay of execution! Splendid!”

  “Yeah, don’t get too comfortable. I need to check out your claim before I do anything.”

  “About your friends being in the time catch? Oh, you know that’s exactly where they are, but do what you must. In fact, I’d prefer it. Once you discover I’m your one hope of re-entering that place, and you will, our talks will go more swiftly. Especially when I explain the urgency factor.”

  I had started to leave, but I stopped. Reacting to his teaser was stupid—I knew that—but right now he was my sole source of intel.

  “And what’s that?” I asked.

  “After the hostile way in which you’ve conducted this interview, Mr. Croft, I’m inclined to withhold that information. But very well. I was managing some especially powerful energies in that space. You experienced them firsthand, I believe. Well, what do you think is happening without anyone at the controls?”

  As the corners of his mouth forked up, I pictured violent currents of ley energy snaking in directions they weren’t intended, bending essential struts, rendering an unstable environment even more so. My final image was of a massive implosion, swallowing everyone and everything inside the time catch.

  “Exactly,” he hissed.

  My heart thumped sickly in my chest as I strode from Arnaud’s view.

  “I’ll be waiting,” he called before I could kill the speaker.

  2

  I arrived upstairs in Homicide to find Vega stooped beside her office file cabinets, midnight hair shifting across the back of her jacket. It wasn’t until she turned slightly that I saw the broom and long-handled dustpan. She had a habit of cleaning when her mind was preoccupied, and this was clearly one of those moments.

  As she emptied the dustpan into the trash, my gaze fell to her stomach. She wouldn’t start showing for at least another six weeks, but I thought about what Arnaud had said. Was I endangering my family by keeping the demon-vampire alive?

  “How’d it go?”

  I looked up to find her facing me, eyes dark and expectant. I closed the door, kissed her warm forehead, and relieved her of the broom and dustpan. “Interestingly,” I said, leaning the cleaning implements against a filing cabinet. “He claims the Upholders are still in the time catch.”

  “Dammit. Is he telling the truth?”

  “I think so.” Though Arnaud had made light of my offer of clemency from his master in exchange for info, he’d accepted it, sliding in the response to my question subtly, without fanfare. “Didn’t give me much more, though.”

  “Did he tell you why the Upholders were still there?”

  “He made some insinuations about the fae, but I don’t know. Felt more like a mind game.”

  I sat on the corner of her desk. Vega came over and leaned beside me, arms crossed, eyes narrowing toward the opposite wall where several framed certificates hung. “What about the senior members of your Order? Any insights into how he could possibly free them?”

  “Not yet. You sound skeptical.”

  I thought we were going to get into another back and forth over whether Arianna’s visit had been just a dream. We’d had that discussion a couple times now. But instead, she said, “I just don’t like that he’s still alive.”


  “Well, me neither.”

  “So what’s the plan?”

  “As far as learning how he might be key to the Order’s release?” I blew out my breath. “We wait for Arianna to contact me again.”

  “And if she doesn’t?”

  “Then he’ll eventually die.”

  “How long is eventually?” she asked, continuing to study the far wall.

  “Days. He’s completely cut off from the infernal realm. He’s already looking thinner, weaker.”

  “You’re not planning to extend his time here, are you?” When she looked over at me, a cloud gathered across her face. Arnaud was right. I hadn’t told her my plan to use the threat of Arnaud’s master reclaiming him as leverage.

  “No.”

  “Are you sure about that?”

  The challenge in her voice took me back to our conversation the night before, when she’d told me about Tony’s father, Ramon. After an incident where Ramon imperiled her son, Vega had him arrested and prosecuted for child endangerment. For an instant, I could see the same protective instincts firing hot behind her eyes. But then she grasped my arm and leaned her head against my shoulder.

  “I just want this to be over.”

  “Me too.” I placed my hand over hers.

  “What’s the next step?”

  “Recovering my teammates from the time catch.”